Haale-lujah

Speaking of the Best-Of lists coming out, I came across an interesting one over at the Boston Globe, where respected music journo Siddharta Mitter put out her top 10 faves of the year.

Included on the list was the debut release of Brooklyn-based Haale Gafori. She also had a nice profile in the newspaper earlier this year. As noted by the article, a lot of Haale's lyrics deal with her bicultural identity.

Last year I randomly saw Haale perform at a show at the legendary Black Cat club in Washington DC. (no, not the FOB Five). Also on that bill was Virginia-based Anousheh Khalili, a 24-year-old multi-instrumentalist. She's already got a Grammy on her shelf, for providing the vocals on Deep Dish's groundbreaking 'George Is On' album in 2006, on such international megahits as the trance-inducing 'Flashdance' and the haunting 'Say Hello'.

Meanwhile, an Iranian-American professor over at Harvard is making a name for herself as both a geneticist and the lead singer of Boston alt-rock trio Thousand Days. She took her guitar to Davos this year where she was invited to speak at the World Economic Forum this year. Say hello to...